Rebirth of Honor is a campaign for IL-2 Sturmovik `Forgotten Battles.
Campaign' means that you play through the carreer of a fighter pilot with 333
connected missions.
All missions in Rebirth of Honor are new. Not one mission was ever previously
released.
To build a good campaign its not enough to just connect a series of dogfight and
ground support missions.
A good campaign should try to draw the player into a fictional `world and give
him the feeling of `living in it.
I think a good campaign should be like a good book: eventful,dramatic and
surprising. I dont like a campaign in which I have to repeatedly fly many
missions because I get shot down too often. Alternately, I hate a campaign that
is too easy and in which I become a hero after only a few missions.
A good campaign should be unpredictable but the player should have the chance to
survive it.
In reality most pilots, including the aces, firstly tried to survive and only
then tried to achieve kills. With this rule in mind, the player should be able
to `stay alive.

The player takes the role of a former test pilot.
After some time he gets the opportunity to try out captured enemy planes or he
has to
accomplish rescue missions with the He-111. Crossing the front at night, flying
behind the enemy lines, landing at a hidden place and bringing back an important
character. In one mission he has to fly with a captured plane over the enemy
lines to take some photos. How should this be done? With the Balkenkreuz under
the wings or with red stars? Will he be recognized? Will the enemy Flak stay
quiet, when he is flying circles at low altitude over the front? Will the agent
be waiting for him when he lands behind the front, or will it be the Russians?
How often will luck be with him? The following screenshot shows an example of a
rescue mission:

During real war, relatively quiet times are interspersed with hours of terror.
When a major operation took place the soldiers world was ruled by rush, fear,
danger, chaos, day and night. Then, the war would seem to sleep. The soldiers
life was spent with sitting around, waiting, marching, waiting, boredom,
waiting, waiting waiting. The briefing texts reflect these changes. During quiet
times the player gets something to read. The (fictional) political and
historical events are then described.

When major operations take place the briefings are hurried. I wanted the player
to feel the war at these times. Texts are short and the player often has to fly
more than one mission a day. The enemy is close and time is short

Rebirth of Honor is a story.
A story about history, how it never was but perhaps could have been. ROH is a
story about someone who slowly learns the truth. This role is the players role.

I believe that most players of IL- Sturmovik `Forgotten Battles have a
good knowledge about the history of World War II. Playing through the real
history with IL-2FB is no problem today. For example the really great `Operation
Barbarossa- campaign has been out there for some time.

With `Rebirth of Honor I wanted to go another way.
Everybody knows that on July 20th 1944 an attempt was made on Hitlers life.
In Germany this attempt often is referred to as an `Aufstand des Gewissens
(Uprising of Conscience), when courageous men tried to liberate Germany and
Europe from Adolf Hitler. This story interested and
fascinated me ever since I learned of it. Besides these men many others had
tried before.
Unfortunately nobody succeeded in killing Hitler and creating a better order in
Germany. In the end Germany was defeated and it was Germanys greatest luck that
the victors were gracious. This is the story we all
know.

But what might have happened if Hitler hadn't ruled as long as he did?

What might have happened had Germany gotten rid of the tyrant in mid 1942?
Would there have been a way to avoid the decline? Would there have been a
realistic way to get rid of, together with Hitler, all the Nazi leaders? Would
there have been a chance for peace with all the other powers?

I dont want to tell the story here, but two things in advance: I dont
believe that another government could have ended the war very easily in 1942. I
dont believe either that Germany could have defeated the Soviet
Union in the 1940s. The story of the campaign is not about a Germany which gets
rid of Hitler, avoids all his major mistakes and wins the war. The story of `ROH
is far more complicated

Until mid 1942, the campaign keeps strictly to the real history. I own an
extensive library about general and military history , including titles
specifically about World War II, and the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the
books are very rare copies of US- American post war analysis.
With the `Kriegstagebuch des OKW (war diary of the German high command) I was
able to investigate many incidents from the fronts of that time. As close as
possible, I tried to recreate the missions around real
events with real weather on the actual dates. I extensively used maps which
unfortunately show only situations at specific times rather than the events that
occured.
From mid 1942 on, after Hitlers death, the fictional story starts. Politics,
strategy and the war economies take a different path from the one we know. It
continues up to the end of the campaign, until the player gets an insight into
the true events